DATA-DRIVEN MANUFACTURING
ensure they will help upskill internal teams as part of the work. Build it as one team to drive cultural
change. Ensure your data scientists, operators and R&D specialists can all work together and use the same language.
Standardising communication Production systems will only ever realise their full potential when data is available consistently, in a structured manner and in real time. The weak link for data sharing often relates to legacy and proprietary interfaces from different manufacturers along with heterogeneous data models. Minebea Intec believes that this is why it is integration, and not digitalisation of processes, that pose the biggest data challenges for confectionery manufacturers today. “The bottleneck to successfully
30 • KENNEDY’S CONFECTION • JULY 2026
improving production performance is no longer data acquisition – but its consistent use,” says Nils Hubrich, Product Manager at Minebea Intec. To
manage this complexity, Nils
argued that standardised communication structures are needed to allow systems to be connected in a way that is mutually understandable and this is where OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture) comes in – OPC UA is a platform-independent machine-to- machine communication protocol that enables machines and software to securely exchange data and context, regardless of the manufacturer. OPC UA provides the description of individual measured values and also provides contextual information. This allows a system to recognise what is
being sent and what it means and this can transform data transmission into genuine, interoperable communication – an essential prerequisite for automated processes and data-driven decisions. “The decisive added value arises when data is not only available but is clearly understood within the entire system context – this is precisely what OPC UA was developed for,” continues Nils. This approach is further refined through
so-called Companion Specifications, which define industry-specific data models and ensure that different devices and systems use the same structures and terminology. In production processes such as weighing and inspection technology, this standardisation is key. Whether it’s the precise weighing of raw materials, recipe control or quality assurance, critical process data is continuously generated and
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
